In recent years, in therapy of myocardial infarction and the like, there has been widely known a therapeutic method in which a sheet-shaped cell culture obtained by cultivating and organizing the patient's own cells is transplanted to the patient. Such a cell culture may sometimes be generally called a “cell sheet.” In order to provide the cultivated cell sheet for transplantation to a patient, the cell sheet needs to be preserved in the state of being contained in a predetermined container filled with a storage fluid such as physiological salt solution and be transported in this state to a medical institution or the like.
For transport of a cell sheet, it may be contemplated to utilize a container assembly as disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 4213588. The container assembly includes a container capable of containing a reagent therein, and a sample holder which is disposed inside the container and is capable of containing a biological sample therein. The sample holder has a fluid opening, through which the reagent can move between the inside and the outside of the sample holder.
The cell sheet is very small in film thickness and is therefore fragile. Thus, when the above-mentioned container assembly is used, the cell sheet is only floating in the storage fluid. When the container assembly is vibrated during transport thereof, the vibration may be transmitted through the storage fluid, resulting in damage to or breakage of the cell sheet. Specifically, when the storage fluid is vibrated due to vibration applied to the container, flowing motion such as waving of the storage fluid is generated, and shearing forces and/or tensile forces are exerted on the cell sheet. Accordingly, a means for preventing the transmission of vibration to the cell sheet is needed.
Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2002-335950 discloses a storage transport container wherein a film-shaped tissue is held by sandwiching it between liquid-permeable support bodies, and the sandwich-like body is contained in a container together with a predetermined storage fluid so as to keep it in a wet state. When this storage transport container is used for storage and transport of a cell sheet, however, there is a risk of damaging the cell sheet at the time of holding the cell sheet by the support bodies, due to the structure in which the support bodies sandwich the cell sheet therebetween by making direct contact with the cell sheet from both sides.